AI in overdrive: DeepSeek, Nvidia and fixing the blind spots

Small Steps Vol. 113: Giant Leap’s impact thesis for Ovum.ai 👩🏻‍⚕️; the state of Aussie startup funding 💸; and climate tech predictions for the year ahead 🌱.

A wild week in AI

🏃🏽‍♂️💨 AI is moving fast – so fast that this past week felt like a year’s worth of headlines crammed into a few days. DeepSeek burst onto the scene, challenging U.S. dominance in AI, and already seeing bans by various countries and government agencies and sparking concerns over the model’s energy-intensive “chain-of-thought” reasoning. Meanwhile, Nvidia saw a staggering US$600 billion wiped from its market cap, SoftBank is reportedly gearing up for a $40 billion + bet on OpenAI, and fears of an AI bubble reminiscent of the dot-com crash remain as loud as ever.

The first wave of the EU’s new AI regulations kicked in on February 2, prohibiting AI practices including building facial recognition databases by scraping images online, social scoring, criminal prediction software and emotional detection technologies in schools and the workplace – marking the first real regulatory push to rein in the sector.

In case that wasn’t enough, Character.AI is testing the limits of free speech in court, while AI-powered “future self” simulations are forcing us to rethink identity and time and maybe even shaping the decisions we make today. We’re buckling up for what is looking to be AI’s wildest year yet.

From bias to breakthroughs: AI x healthtech

🤖 The AI revolution isn’t just about speed and scale, but also about ethics. Bad data in, bad data out. As AI models advance at breakneck pace, the datasets they train on remain stuck in the past, failing to reflect the true diversity of our societies and their needs. Nowhere is this more critical than in healthcare.

We’re at a tipping point. The combination of increasingly powerful AI models and the explosion of decentralised health data – from wearables to at-home diagnostics – has the potential to transform healthcare into a truly personalised, accessible system. However, that future depends on closing the data gap first. AI models trained on historical medical data risk amplifying biases, reinforcing the same systemic failures that leave at least half the population underserved.

Fixing this starts with how we collect data in the first place. And that’s exactly what led us to invest in Ovum – a company tackling this issue head-on and paving the way for a fairer, data-driven future in health.

Giant Leap’s impact thesis for our investment in Ovum

We’re excited to share our recent investment in Ovum, an AI-driven health assistant built for women so that they can better understand, manage and take control of their health, guided by intelligent, personalised insights with privacy at its core.

Founder and CEO Dr Ariella Heffernan-Marks built Ovum after seeing the failings caused by the health data gap from both sides of the healthcare system first hand – both as a doctor and as a patient. Using her clinical expertise and designed alongside leaders in women’s health, Ovum is democratising quality care for women and addressing the lack of diverse health datasets globally.

A fairer, data-driven health future

The health data gap refers to the fundamental lack of research and clinical data that adequately reflects the physiology, healthcare needs and experiences of people assigned female at birth, intersex people and individuals who are not cisgender male.

As we shared in our recent deep dive, our healthcare systems are built on the false assumption that male health and physiology are the standard. This has resulted in women’s unique health concerns remaining under-researched, misunderstood and frequently dismissed. As a result, women face longer diagnostic delays, fewer available treatments, less effective treatments when they are available, and exposure to a myriad of preventable health risks.

This is no small problem. The data gap contributes to the 75 million years of life lost due to poor health or early death per year – an equivalent of 7 days per woman, per year. Closing this gap would potentially boost the global economy by over US$1 trillion annually by 2040.

Ovum is solving this problem by improving access to longitudinal health data and the accessibility of high quality, personalised care. By providing users with evidence-based and personalised resources, integrated storage and access to medical reports and longitudinal symptom tracking, Ovum empowers users to better advocate for their health, engage in shared decision making with healthcare providers, and adopt preventative health interventions. Given that 34% of the women’s disease burden could be prevented by avoiding risk factors and risk exposure, this is material to improving health outcomes.

It aims to correct the disparities seen in AI models trained on datasets that underrepresent accurate women’s health data, by ensuring its algorithm learns from a broad and genuinely inclusive range of health experiences.

Ovum also gives users the option to share anonymised data with research institutions, while keeping their personal data de-identified, private and secure. As the product scales, Ovum stands to collate one of the largest and most diverse women’s health datasets, which could improve the research gap at a systemic level.

What’s next for Ovum

After comprehensive beta testing, Ovum’s product will be launching to the public in the coming months. Sign up for early access here.

Ovum founder and CEO Dr Ariella Heffernan-Marks

Read our full Theory of Change for Ovum here, and read more about Ovum’s raise in The Australian here (note the paywall).

In other news…

🤑 The State of Australian Startup Funding. The stats are in, as Cut Through Venture’s 2024 State of Australian Startup Funding report went live on Tuesday. Aussie startups raised $4b in total funding in 2024, up 11% on the previous year. However, this was spread over fewer deals, with deal count down 12% on 2023. In great news for impact sectors, climate/cleantech ($609m) and biotech/medtech ($347m) were the top funded sectors, behind only fintech ($947m). Download the report from the website for more.

Source here.

🍎🐛 Sydney-siders, Goterra’s maggot robots are now eating your food waste. The City of Sydney trial with Goterra to process residents’ food waste is now in operation, saving up to 97% of CO2 emissions compared to disposal in landfill. With over 500,000 tonnes of food waste produced by the City of Sydney annually, this decentralised model will be a game-changer for urban sustainability.

🚫 FDA says goodbye to Red Dye 3. In a landmark decision, the FDA has banned the synthetic food coloring Red 3 from food and drugs due to cancer concerns, affecting everything from candy to cough medicine. The dye, which has been linked to thyroid tumors in animal studies, has already been banned in cosmetics since 1990. Companies now have two years to reformulate their products, impacting popular items like candy canes and maraschino cherries.

🌊 Seaweed to slash methane. South Australian startup CH4 Global has begun production of its cattle feed supplement at the world’s first commercial-scale red seaweed production facility. This is a huge step in showing that methane-reducing feed supplements can be commercially viable without government subsidies, a key step in scaling the climate solution that can reduce methane emissions from livestock by up to 90%.

🔋 Bill Gates on AI’s role in climate action. In a recent interview with The Verge, Gates remains optimistic about AI’s potential to tackle big global challenges. In his new Netflix series, What’s Next? The Future With Bill Gates, he explores how AI can boost productivity, fight misinformation and revolutionize health and learning. While the risks like energy consumption and misuse are real, he believes AI’s benefits outweigh its downsides if shaped responsibly. His biggest bet? AI-powered tools in classrooms and labs could be game-changers for the next decade.

🌏 2025 trends in climate tech. The most recent episode of Catalyst with Shayle Kann delves into the evolving landscape of oil demand, the role of aerosols in climate change, and advancements in carbon removal technologies – check it out for some insights into what the year ahead may hold.

🎶 Playlist of the week. Feeling like the year is already off to a chaotic start? Take a breath and unwind with this playlist of real nature sounds straight from the Tasmanian wilderness. We’ve got it on repeat.

New Paths

🔋 Amber Electric is hiring various roles including a People Operations Business Partner, a Senior Growth Product Manager and a Senior UX Designer (Melbourne).

📦 Sendle is after a Marketing Manager (Sydney, remote) and a Senior Accounting Manager (Sydney, hybrid).

🧻 Who Gives A Crap is hiring a Content Lead, a Senior Marketing Manager and a Senior Software Engineer (Melbourne, remote).

🐛 Goterra is searching for a Compliance Officer (Canberra) and an Electrical Fitter (NSW).

🧑‍💻 Perx is looking for an Account Executive (remote within the US).

🔥 Want to work for an impact company? Fill out our expression of interest form for roles across our portfolio. There’s even more jobs at ethical companies on the global B-Work job board.

Save the date

📅 14 February: Applications close for EnergyLab’s Women in Climate and Energy Fellowship. This one’s for ambitious women launching clean energy and climate startups! Over a 3-month program, you’ll gain the skills, know-how and network to take the first steps in entrepreneurship.

📅 13 February: Stone & Chalk’s Melbourne Ecosystem Mixer - Talent meets Startups. Are you a startup looking for fresh talent, or maybe you’re ready for a new role? Join this networking speed dating session from 3 pm to 5 pm, or open ecosystem drinks from 5 pm onwards.

📅 17 February: Applications close for UNSW Founders' Pre-X Accelerator. For Sydney-based, early-stage founders, this 4-week pre-accelerator program is crafted to set you up for success with customer discovery and strengthening business acumen.

📅 23 February: Applications close for Vic Gov’s Catalyst Grants - Women’s Health Research Priorities. An amazing opportunity for healthtech founders, the Victorian Department of Health is funding one-year catalyst grants to research proposals that further our knowledge of the influence sex and/or gender can have on disease or conditions.

📅 February: Applications are now open for Pitchapalooza 2025! Enter the search for Australia’s best AI pitch - open to any stage startup or mature tech company. All applicants will access over $20,000 in partner perks from a handpicked selection of best-in-class software and services, with the winner taking home a massive prize pool.